The old 10 foot pole in the PHB was equipment, not a weapon. It was used to prod and poke things, and to scrape the bottom of pools of unknown liquid, and to reach switches and levers in various places, and to somehow (inexplicable to anyone, especially the DM) still be able to be carried by a 5 to 6 foot tall character through the narrow, winding, twisty, and cramped dungeons being explored!

So I'm calling "shenanigans" on that picture due to the ambiguity of what 5th edition is actually carrying!

Only a 10 foot pole will properly evoke the prodding the mine field fragility of the early era. Lady 4e would never use such a thing of course.

_________________

Born To Be Kings and Heros -- From the Ashes Phoenix“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” - Lazarus Long via Robert Heinlein.

One suspects Lugh Long-hand Samildánach (a wright/carpenter, a sailor, a smith/bronze craftsman, a healer, a champion, a harpist, a poet/historian, a sorcerer, cupbearer) would agree.

Skwyd, rules as written both BECMI and AD&D, the ten foot pole had a cubic volume that was less then the cubic volume capacity of a backpack, even when loaded with iron rations, torches, extra sacks, tinderbox, rope, hammer, spikes... (the adventurer's kit is such a time saver). Obviously, she is carrying the ten foot pole in her backpack. Duh.

Oh, we exploited that stuff as well. One of my friends had a character sheet with a list of what he was carrying that covered the entire back side of his sheet. And that was when we were 19! I'm sure the abuses of the rules when I started at 11 years old were much worse!

I always hated the Adventurer's Pack in 4E. But only because whenever someone took that, they would always have to refer back to the PHB to see what was actually in that pack because none of us would remember. I would tell the players that bought the Pack to just list on their character sheet what was in that pack so they didn't have to waste time looking it up!

Not sure if this has been said already, but, another reason that I love 4e is that this is the only edition of D&D that has some truly enjoyable combat.

I hate the shallow combat of previous editions. 4e not only has tactical depth in combat, but elegance too. Sure the other editions can have depth but it's not baked into the system, nearly as enjoyable, and often times bogs the game down. A well designed 4e encounter just feels great to play through as long as the players keep combat flowing.

I've really been 'jonesing' to play 4e here lately. Everyone in my town has jumped on the 5e bandwagon. Which I enjoy 5e, but I can't help but want to play 4e. Though I've got a friend who was considering starting a 1st level 4e game.

I have 6 sessions left (I think it is 6) in my long-running 4E campaign. It was started almost 4 years ago and will be finished this July. I'm a little sad to see these characters and this story go, but it has been fun and awesome.

I have a new player coming on board for my next campaign (which will be shorter than 4 years long) and a long-standing player exiting (for personal reasons unrelated to gaming). And 1 player is "in limbo" as to whether they will be continuing as their school/work/family schedule will be changing up over the summer.

4E has continually offered me and my group the kind of gaming we all love and no one in my group has ever said that they would prefer to be playing any other edition. I'm glad that I've got a group of like-minded people that want to play my favourite edition of D&D!